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fannie mae

Some Homeowners Are Eligible For Mortgage Relief. Are You One Of Them?

March 5, 2009

When the White House first introduced the Making Home Affordable program in February, it was positioned as a mortgage program with two goals: To help financially-needy homeowners get mortgage relief To help homeowners who’ve lose equity qualify for today’s low rates Wednesday, in a much-anticipated announcement, the U.S. Treasury introduced new details about Making Home Affordable

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Fannie Mae Removes Its 4-Financed Property Limit

February 10, 2009

Friday, Fannie Mae rolled-back one of its least popular mortgage guidelines updates of the last 12 months.

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Mortgage Rates Fell But Be Careful Of History Repeating Itself

November 26, 2008

Like everything else on Wall Street, mortgage markets are based on supply and demand. When demand outweighs supply, mortgage rates fall.
So, Tuesday, when the government unexpectedly announced a $500 billion budget for buying mortgage debt from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the demand side of the mortgage market ballooned.
The surprise demand helped push mortgage [...]

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The 2009 FHA Loan Limits For Every U.S. County

November 19, 2008

In March 2008, HUD temporarily raised FHA loan limits around the country. Effective January 1, 2009, FHA loan limits revert.
FHA home loans are mortgages made by private lenders and insured by the federal government.
Historically, FHA home loans have been “easier” for which to qualify than their conforming mortgage counterparts and, therefore, tend to be [...]

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How Big Can A Mortgage Be And Not Be Considered "Jumbo"?

November 15, 2008

For the 4th consecutive year, the government has set the conforming mortgage loan size limit at $417,000.
A conforming mortgage is one that, quite literally, conforms to the mortgage guidelines set forth by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
The 2009 conforming loan limits, as released by the government, are:

1-unit properties : $417,000
2-unit properties : $533,850
3-unit properties : [...]

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Effective December 13, 2008, Some Conforming Mortgages Will Require Larger Downpayments To Get Approved

October 21, 2008

In an effort to limit risky borrower behavior, Fannie Mae announced a new round of mortgage guideline changes last week.
Unlike previous its previous 20-plus updates that raised income requirements and minimum credit scores (among other changes), Fannie’s latest guideline tweaks focus on the value of its underlying mortgage assets — home equity.
Effective [...]

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Why Mortgage Rates Haven’t Fallen As Expected

October 10, 2008

When the government nationalized mortgage lending in September, housing analysts predicted lower mortgage rates.
For a brief two-week stint, they were right — post-takeover, the 30-year, fixed rate mortgage fell below 6.000 percent nationally for the first time in 7 months.
Since then, however, mortgage markets have reversed. Rates are now at pre-takeover levels.
Now, this isn’t [...]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : October 6, 2008

October 6, 2008

Congress approved the $700 billion “Bailout Bill” Friday, answering the question that dogged mortgage markets all week long:
Will they or won’t they pass it?
The uncertainty prior to the vote created huge market swings that ultimately sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst week since the 2001 terrorist attacks, while causing similar [...]

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Fannie Mae Halves One Of Its Mandatory Loan Fees

October 3, 2008

In an effort to provide “the most market support possible”, Fannie Mae is cutting one of its mandatory loan fees by 0.250 percent, effective immediately.
Fannie Mae introduced the Adverse Market Delivery Charge in December 2007 to offset foreclosure and delinquency losses.  The initial fee was a quarter-percent of the amount borrowed.
Then, as market conditions [...]

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FHA Makes Homeownership More Affordable — But Not Until October 1, 2008

September 24, 2008

Earlier this year — and for the first time in its history — the FHA changed its funding fees and mortgage insurance structure.
Effective October 1, 2008, it’s repealing those changes.
Partly to keep FHA home loans affordable, and partly to comply with new laws, the FHA is rolling back its up-front fees and ongoing mortgage [...]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : September 15, 2008

September 15, 2008

In a week overdone with market-altering news, conforming mortgage rates shed a quarter-percent overall last week.  It was the third straight week in which rates improved.
The biggest story, by far, was the government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The two quasi-government agencies were nationalized into bona fide government agencies, converted mortgage-backed debt into [...]

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New Mortgage Rules Put Limits On Residential Real Estate Investors

September 10, 2008

In its last act as a semi-independent company, Fannie Mae altered mortgage guidelines for real estate investors last Friday. It was Fannie’s 22nd update this year.
The first part of the guideline change limits the number of properties owned by any one person.
Fannie Mae will now decline any mortgage application for a second home [...]

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Why The Government’s Takeover Of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Is Lowering Mortgage Rates

September 9, 2008

When comparing two investments with equal risk, a rational person will choose the investment with a higher rate of return.
This behavior is called Risk Aversion and is a basic tenet of personal investing.
An off-shoot of Risk Aversion is that a rational person will only invest in an instrument of greater risk if [...]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : September 8, 2008

September 8, 2008

Mortgage markets improved last week on Hurricane Gustav’s less-than-expected damages and a strengthening U.S. dollar.
Even factoring in Friday’s 0.125 percent run-up on most mortgage products, rates improved overall.
It’s the second straight week in which mortgage rates improved.
But for all the news that we could dissect from last week, it should be the news [...]

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Converting Your Primary Residence To An Investment Property? You May Not Qualify For Your Next Mortgage.

August 26, 2008

When a homeowner buys a new home, he has 3 options of what to do with his current residence:

Sell the home, paying off the mortgage in full
Keep the home as a second/vacation home
Convert the home to an investment property

The most common action plan is the first one — sell the home and pay off the [...]

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Mortgage Insurance Rates Skyrocket (For Homeowners That Still Qualify)

August 21, 2008

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is an insurance policy paid to a lender in the event that a homeowner defaults on his home loan.
With the growing number of mortgage defaults nationwide, mortgage insurers are finding their balance sheets under attack and their revenues in the red.
So far this year, mortgage insurers have paid out $6 [...]

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Fannie Mae Increases Its Mandatory Loan Fees For All Borrowers

August 7, 2008

Fannie Mae announced a new risk-based pricing model and additional mortgage delivery fees this week, adding to the cost of buying or refinancing a home.
Risk-based pricing was first introduced by Fannie Mae this past April. It added new, mandatory loan fees for high-risk borrowers while rewarding a small group of low-risk borrowers [...]

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Looking Back And Looking Ahead : August 4, 2008

August 4, 2008

In a week in which stock markets moved 1 percent or more on four separate days, mortgage markets displayed a relative calmness that helped pull rates lower.
It was the second consecutive week that mortgage rates improved.
Last week’s biggest story came Monday when the housing bill was passed into law.  The new law provides lifelines [...]

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Changing Mortgage Guidelines Impact Buyers Of Second Homes And Investment Properties

August 1, 2008

Conforming mortgage guidelines are the Home Loan Rule Book, delineating between applicants that approved for a mortgage and those that do not.
Effective today, the rule book just got a little bit tougher.
According to Fannie Mae, homeowners converting their primary residence into a second home or investment property will be subject to additional underwriting [...]

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Mandatory FHA Loan Fees Increase For Some, Fall For Others

July 18, 2008

For the first time in its history, the FHA changed its funding fees and mortgage insurance structure this week.  FHA-insured home loans are now subject to a risk-based pricing adjustment, as shown by the table above.
Because of risk-based pricing, FHA home loans are now more expensive for borrowers with less-than-ideal credit profiles, and less [...]

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